Real Life Stories – 30th April

This week, we have some wonderful feel-good stories to help get you through the middle of your week.

An endangered deer is born – and it’s the size of a hamster!

A zoo in Fuengirola, Spain, has been conducting a breeding programme to help save the Java mouse-deer. The adults rarely grow larger than rabbits, and their tiny offspring are the size of hamsters! The deer, native to South East Asia, are at severe risk because of deforestation, so zoos across Europe are working to save the little bitty Bambis. The baby deer’s mother came from the same zoo (she too was born as part of the breeding programme), and the baby’s father was donated by Zoo Lille in France.

This birth brings the total number of Java mouse-deer in Europe to 43.

Boy in coma after car accident makes a miraculous recovery

In September 2011, eight-year-old Adam McQuillan was knocked down by a car. Doctors rushed to save his life, putting him a medically induced coma. They warned his mother that he would have severe brain damage and would likely never recover completely – if indeed he made it out of the coma.

Several months later, he came out of the coma, and still doctors warned that he would have lasting brain damage and would be severely disabled.

Then Adam got determined. He learned to walk unaided again, and he is starting to regain some speech. He has lost the use of his right arm, but he is learning to use his left hand to write and draw. In fact, he has returned to school following his remarkable recovery. He is doing all the things boys his age are doing, just with one hand, his mother said. “After his accident we sold his XBox and Wii because we were told he would never be able to use them – now he plays them one-handed and is also really into drawing and colouring. He can do so much.” And although he will probably always have some lasting damage, his family expect him to live a full and completely independent life. Not bad for a child who was on the brink of death less than a year ago.

Watch what happens when a toddler makes dinner

In this YouTube cooking series, Misha Collins lets his son West prepare dinner, while he acts as “shoe chef”. Recipes include pasta with jam sauce and peanut and watermelon soup, and, well, you should probably just watch the video to get a real sense of the cuteness going on here.

Man digs up £30,000 diamond, as you do

Source

The Crater of Diamonds State Park lived up to its name for one incredibly lucky visitor. The park, which encourages visitors to dig for the valuable gem, is the only diamond producing site in the world that is open to the public. It costs just $7 (about £4) to enter, and diggers can keep whatever they find.

So when David Anderson went along, he was probably expecting to find a few flakes and tiny diamonds scattered around. Imagine his shock when he actually found a 6.10 carat rock – the fifteenth largest ever found at the park!

Still, David is keen to spread the wealth around, saying that he would sell the diamond and give the money to charity.

 

These stories of cuteness, generosity and miraculous recoveries sure have us feeling better. What about you? Let us know what you think about these real life stories in the comments below!